Knights in High Vis Jackets

So, how many AA men does it take to sort out Flowerpower's car? The answer is three. No more, no less.

Today turned out to be quite an adventure..

I left my house at 10.30 and headed off down the M40 to visit friends in Chelmfsord... E.T.A one pm in time for lunch. By 11.00 am I was sitting in a queue of traffic that had been caused after a three car accident. Thankfully no one appeared to be seriously injured and, after about half an hour, I was on my way again. This is when it all started to go wrong.... My engine appeared to just get hotter and hotter, and I began to panic slightly as I watched the levels rise. Eventually it reached the red zone and the words STOP ENGINE flashed up on my dash board. I pulled over on to the hard shoulder and managed to pull up just behind an AA van that was dealing with another call out. I waited and asked the nice AA man if I could also hitch a lift with them. He agreed and so began my adventures with the AA....

He towed me and two Irish men and their car to Beaconsfield services and there we waited for another AA man to turn up. He arrived quickly and began poking about in my engine... I left him to it and eventually returned and asked him what the prognosis was. He then replied with those three dreaded words...BLOWN HEAD GASKET.. My response sounded a bit like 'Hit', but starts with the letter 'S'.

I told them about my plans for the weekend and my two favourite AA men then began to hatch a plan... Andy (the tall, bald one) agreed to drive me to a hire car company in Slough and sort out a car for me. He rang ahead and sorted out a discount for me... He also agreed to take my car back to Warwick and deliver it to the garage just up the road from me. Martin wrote down all the problems with my car and roughly how much it should cost to get fixed. They were both brilliant. A third AA man then turned up and joined in the discussions. He was very funny. (The short one).

I spent most of my day with Andy. I learned all about his life in the police force and his plans for the future. He came with me in to the hire car place and made sure I had the best deal. He then phoned me once he had delivered my car to my garage later in the evening. His customer service and care were outstanding and I am going to write to the AA to tell them all about Andy and Martin (and the short one whose name I don't know). I could not have been better looked after.

I eventually left Slough in my whizzy hire car and arrived at my friends house at about 4.15pm. It was quite a journey!

We then settled in for the evening and enjoyed the wonder that is the Eurovision Song Contest.

It was quite a memorable day.